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My Nemo’s muzzle is gone nearly all silver. He was right up near the pillow when I took this picture and I am surprised it came out in focus. He usually makes the effort to sneak up next to me not so much to cuddle the way Rico does, but because he wants something he doesn’t have thumbs to get. Dogs have no guile.

The big guy is five and a half years old now. I still remember the day he was born, when the Puppy Fairy delivered nine puppies to Daisy, the pregnant dog I had rescued from the neighbor next door. We won’t go there right now. This is about happy stuff and we did find a good home for Daisy.

Nemo grew up with not one, but two nanny dogs, the first being Emily the Great Pyrenees who passed away when Nemo was just six months old and the second being Sadie, the Yellow Lab who just recently passed away. He has lived with cats and chickens his entire life as well as with Sparky, his elder dog brother by two years. Nemo’s younger dog brother would be Rico, who is just over three years old. Phoofie has been a mainstay and nemesis for Nemo’s entire life so far. Of course, at eleven years old, the cat pretty much just naps all day and ignores the dogs anyway.

When I got sick last year, the lying around staring at the ceiling activity level I have had makes me appreciate that my dogs are here providing in-home dog therapy the way they do. When I get my hair to grow back, I’m not even going to complain about it being all grey any more. At this point, I will be satisfied to simply have hair.

My shiny, black puppy has grown to 140lbs at his heaviest, 125lbs when he’s at his best weight, and has acquired quite a few silver threads on his schnozzola. Grey hairs signify life lived, history made, time spent. Nobody will ever love you the way your dog does.

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Our fifteen year old Labrador Retriever Sadie passed away at New Year’s. We had had her with us since she was nine months old. Some of Sadie’s happiest years were spent in Vermont where she greatly enjoyed her neighbors, HannahandJosh (yes, it was always said as one word), especially since Sadie has never known anyone else with hair colour the same as hers since the days of Josh.

Sadie was nanny dog to Sparky, Nemo and then Rico plus several chickens and a cat or two that did not discriminate. She was a very loving, long-suffering, hard-headed dog the colour of a pumpkin.

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What a better way to start off 2016 than with a healthy mindset and getting the body to follow? Rico’s human is truly a fitness and health fanatic and he’s taken the leap into founding his own supplement company to provide products made with the quality ingredients that he himself chooses to take care of his own body.

Having spent over six months sidelined to date, I am personally glad 2015 is over. I have only two more sessions of chemo to go through in January and am looking forward to regaining my health, my energy, my stamina, my BODY and my brain back!

One of the worst parts of the chemo treatment is that I’m not often hungry. And of course, if you don’t eat, you’re not getting nutrition into your body. If I did force myself to eat, my body felt blah, like it wasn’t was absorbing the nutrients anyway.

Enter Rico’s human with his new B12 and the D3+K2 liquid drops. I got to be one of the testers for Greg’s product launch and I have nothing but positive things to say.

My body having trouble digesting food and nutrient is less of a problem with these because the liquid supplements are absorbed sublingually, or under the tongue, and go straight into my bloodstream. Most of you all out there are hopefully not having to go through chemo to really need to appreciate the importance of this and I hope you won’t ever have to. Cancer sucks. Suffering through the chemo side effects sucks more.

So, looking forward to a rebirth and rising from the ashes of yours truly in 2016, in mind, body and spirit. Of course, having a neighbor like Rico’s human working out in his driveway every day should inspire any body, right?

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Wow, I cannot believe I missed the entire summer. Those folks who are really observant will notice that my hair in the above photo is barely there. All spring I had not been feeling very well, mostly just drained and had no energy. I needed more and more naps in the afternoon. I had a swollen lymph node on my neck and a dry cough that wouldn’t go away since, like, December. Well, by mid-July, my temperature was spiking to 102, 103 and even 104 degrees, being brought down temporarily by a constant supply of aspirin. And everybody knows that can’t be good.

After nearly a month in the hospital, I received a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – which thankfully is 90% – 95% curable. Heaven knows there are much worse cancers or diseases one can have. Four days after my birthday in August, I had my first chemo treatment and like Eric Berry of the Kansas City Chiefs, who was diagnosed with the same cancer almost a year ago, my expected treatment time is relatively short: six or seven months. God is good that I’ve got something curable and short-lived.

All through my extensive napping this past spring and summer, Rico has been glued to my side and lettering in varsity napping. Of course, Nemo is a professional, but for an active pup like Rico, putting the breaks on, curling up next to me every time he comes over, even not getting up when the other dogs go outside, this was a huge bonding commitment on his part. He’s almost ready to go pro.

I love this picture of him curled up on the pillow next to me, which I’ve often described to folks about his cuddliness, but hadn’t been able to get a good picture of before he’d move. Every night he spends with me, this is how we start off. Can you say, “puppy love”?

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Well, it is my sad duty to report that Ruby, an eight-year-old black Japanese Bantam, has joined Pearl in the Great Chicken Beyond. Ruby seemed to have a sudden onset of chicken blahs and succumbed rapidly, clutching firmly to her perch until the end. In the aftermath of her roommate, Pearl’s, recent passing in March, Ruby had rallied and continued on in good spirits. She enjoyed being carried around and watching morning news programming on my mother’s lap. A private funeral was held at the family home.

We are now officially chicken-less and there are no plans to fill the void left by Ruby and Pearl. Let the purchase of store-bought organic eggs commence.